


Connecting Fire

by KrisCricket



Category: Empires & Puzzles (Mobile Game)
Genre: Action & Romance, F/F, F/M, LGBTQ Female Character of Color, M/M, Mute Tudan, Sharing a Room, Sign Language, Slow Burn, Slow Burn Kelile/Elena, Useless Lesbians, Video Game Mechanics, Will Follow Game Plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-18 18:59:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16522796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrisCricket/pseuds/KrisCricket
Summary: Kelile takes a big risk in bringing a suspected raider into her fort to be nursed back to health from certain death. Things are made more troublesome when the woman has to stay in Kelile's bed while the infirmary is being rebuilt...after the woman destroys it in the first place! With blood-thirsty raiders just beyond the walls of the fort and an attractive stranger within them, Kelile needs to ensure her fort are protected no matter what -- without letting this stranger inside her head.





	1. Prologue

It takes a great amount of energy for one alone to agitate the earth. To make the ground bleed red and hot. Opening deep cracks in the ground, creating spider web-like cracks through valleys, and allowing lava to burn its way to the sea took every bit of concentration and devotion. It was a difficult task, made seemingly impossible due how much effort it took to just stay alive while in the middle of all the chaos. Add several thousand warriors to keep alive for some sort of protection, and truly the ordinary would say it was impossible.

Lava sputtered and hurled itself up, landing and baking black any grasses that stubbornly clung to life despite the poisonous air. The Brooding Mountains cried fire as far south as the Morgovia inlet where the sea would then boil and hardened to rock. This far north, when before there was ice and peace, now only housed creatures that could tolerate the new poisonous environment. Even fire-natured creatures that scurried away when they were not kept in close watch. Any other life clung only from a strong, persistent magic. A magic that kept a servant breathing and strong and gave little else to sustain on. These doomed warriors were shadows of their former selves, with nothing but to obey and to serve their Lord. In exchange for keeping them alive, the Lord’s former self was eaten away by this dark magic.

It ate away everything that was important to him, everything that ever meant anything to him, and perhaps began to eat away at his soul too. It all suited him fine.

For an entire month The Dark Lord remained rooted to the edge of a volcanic vent, his gnarled fingers sparking with dark magic. Surging. Finding. Molding. When the acidic air burned his lungs, he breathed in deep. When blazing holes in his clothing burned his skin he drank in the throbbing pain. The only noises made where those of the roaring earth, the crinkling when the Lord’s grimoire flipped to a new page as it hovered before his silver eyes, and the near silent hum of his constant murmuring in a nasty language. And when the Lord opened his eyes on the end of the first day to the second month he laughed in a terrible, fatigued glee.

One grunted word brought a glowing object from the magma up. It hovered before the Dark Lord's hand, dripping then cooling into a deep red. The crystal’s many faces reflected his own, grayed with sorcery and drifting tuffs of ash. A few more moments of concentration left the gem cool enough to be placed on the ground with the rest of its siblings without it being marred. This fire crystal, along with one made of water and one of purely dark magic, were powerful separately yet incomplete as far as the Dark Lord was concerned. There were still two more crystals that needed to be crafted for his legitimacy to be unquestioned. Two more crystals and this world would belong to him indefinitely. Two more, and his reign could truly begin.

“Master!” A rough voice called out from behind him. The Dark Lord eyed one of his smallest soldiers, who took to cowering at his master’s hardening stare. “Th-There seems to be survivors, Master.” He recalled several verbal reports of an attack well south of here. The Dragonian Caves were crown of these Mountains, difficult to find so far north that some said the only way to find them were to be guided by a Dragonian native. The Dark Lord figured the Emperor’s personal army would die out or turn back before they reached the dreaded Rockfall of Zalthu. “But they are will be taken care of before they reach you!” But it seemed some knights died harder than others.

“No. Let them come.” The soldier took off his helmet to reveal the wide-eyed face of a young goblin. The goblin was sweating and wheezing from the poisonous air (and being in such close proximity to his mysterious master) but took a deep, satisfying breath after the Dark Lord tapped the top of his bald head. Every soldier under his command would notice how easier it was to breathe now. With one task completed, the Dark Lord could refocus. And, perhaps, have a little fun. He waved his hand next to pull the purple crystal into his hand.

“I will deal with them myself.”

Four people came. They were dirty, bleeding, dragging their feet, yet stood proudly before the Dark Lord. A young male had dried blood covering part of his face from a deep cut to his forehead. The female was favoring her left leg while gripping two daggers in her hands. The quiver that peaked out from behind her back appeared empty. The eldest was the familiar and hairier face of Thorne Grey, the commander of what remained of this sorry lot. He stood the tallest and met the Dark Lord’s eyes without needing to raise his head. “You came here to die, old friend.” The Dark Lord began. “Surely you know that.”

“The Emperor has ordered you to return to face your charges.” Thorne said simply. The three surrounding the Dark Lord lowered themselves into fighting stances. Thorne lifted his large icy sword from where he had struck it into the ground. He pointed its massive tip at the Dark Lord. “And it seems you have added treason to your list of crimes.”

The purple crystal began to glow with the Dark Lord's desire. And now _murder_.

The young male fell first in a shouted blaze of glory. He fell heavily into the burning dirt, twitched twice then remained still. The female was harder; she was intelligent enough to use her speed to move to the Dark Lord's side in hopes he would pay more attention to the icy blue magic gathering around Commander Thorne’s blade. But the Dark Lord created a wide cloak of purple haze around him that protected him against the female's close range daggers. Thorne’s ice shards were flicked away a bothersome roach. She landed heavily on the ground and string an arrow (Ah, so she kept one up her sleeve), letting it fly towards his feet. Very intelligent. The Dark Lord jumped high and was met with Thorne unleashing is signature move from above. The Ice Cold Finisher, the young troops called it. No one escaped without frostbite if one were lucky enough to live. The Dark Lord grinned and watched his vision fill with the color of dusk.

The female ended up crumpled on top of the fallen male. Thorne still remained, on his knees and breathing hard from the effort to defend himself from such a vicious wave of darkness. He appeared to no longer have the energy to lift up his sword. “Was it worth it, old friend?” Thorne didn't answer. He managed a bloody smile.

The Dark Lord took the old commander's sword, gazed upon it, and slayed him with it.

He gloated to his soldiers, recounting his success of creating another elemental crystal. Of them all defeating the Emperor's men. Of how nothing would stop them when they marched down from this fiery place and claimed all for themselves. The creatures snarled and cheered and howled loudly to mimic their master’s praise. The Dark Lord did this and breathed in the sulfuric fumes of this victory. When small rocks fell from the cliff nearest their celebration, the Dark Lord watched his red crystal fall before a pale hand reached out to catch it. He was met with a lopsided grin before it disappeared behind the rocks. The image produced such a rage inside of the Dark Lord that the fire crystal in the thief’s hands began to glow bright.

A savage roar followed the thief, as well as the scrambling of thousands of soldiers after.

###### Notes:

_I downloaded Empires & Puzzles a little over 6 months ago and I've been playing it ever since. I've had an idea to write something that fits into its canon. This is my attempt! I'll be working on this and another work at the same time, in the Sailor Moon._

_Thanks for coming on this journey with me! I'm not expecting this story to be popular (as of posting this I'm the first posting to this 'fandom!') So yeah, this will be a personal project to get me back into writing regularly again._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our story begins in Corellia, where several soldiers hunt for food in forest areas that were once teeming with wildlife. Or, at least, everyone is supposed to be foraging. But of course nothing is ever that simple when it comes to Corellia's finest.

“I hate to say it Commander,” Richard sighed. “But this place is getting as dry as Shaguad Desert.”

Dead leaves crunched in Commander Kelile's grip before they floated gently down onto the trap she had just set. She inspected it for a long moment and then considered her captain's loud complaint. “Have you been to Shaguad Desert before?”

“No,” he started, “Though my father had. Years ago. His men told of giant scorpions with these big poisonous claws.” Richard lifted his large hands and snapped his thumb to his fingers as if to mimic them. “Sand and sun in the day and the cold and scorpions in the night.” He sounded disturbed. “They had to eat those...those other bug things…”

Kelile rose to her feet and looked up to see Richard's face. He was a muscled man, dark bearded, and thick necked...and with an aversion to crawling insects no bigger than his big toe. “Scarabs, you mean?” Richard began walking to the next area where a trap had been set the last time they walked these woods. Kelile wondered if he was trying to get away from her mere mention of them. She followed him casually. “Good protein.”

Richard whipped his head back to Kelile, smacking his cheek on the handle of his mighty war hammer that was slung over his shoulder “...You eat those things? Willingly?”

Kelile made disappointing noise when she discovered this trap was empty too. They had moved their trapping area forward twice already. “I was hungry,” the commander finally replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Her captain stuttered a word here and there before composing himself. “Oh, no no! I have plenty of me to keep me from going that hungry for a long time!”

“Did you know some species of beetles have great medicinal properties?” Richard took some extra time to examine the ground for...what ever he was searching for this time. “I'm sure Vivica could make use of them,” she claimed, walking away. Richard would do near anything to please the fort’s healer, Vivica. He had once spent a full night helping her pick tiny purple mushrooms after a rainstorm. He returned chilled to the bone and caked with mud but, when Vivica hugged his thick arm in her sunny gratitude, he grinned for the entire week as snot dripped from his nostrils. Richard even avoided seeing her for herbs for his cold because he wasn’t sure if he could handle seeing Vivica again so soon after he revealed to Kelile that Vivica had given him a kiss to his bicep too. Needless to say the man had it bad for Vivica.

“Richard. Richard?” The man finally looked up with the wide eyes of a young pup. Kelile pat her captain on the arm. “Wildflowers, Captain. Try wildflowers first.” She continued through a bush and back onto the main pathway before hearing the man's relief in a coughing laugh. Kelile only allowed herself to smile before returning to the their empty wooden cart. She was still preoccupied. “Maybe we'll have more luck at the rivers…” The iron supplies were already low; they couldn't afford the food storage to stay below half either. She needed to do something about this, and soon. “The fish may migrate soon. We have to try...we have to try...”

The cart creaked to life but Richard insisted on pushing. Without any catches he felt useless out here. Kelile couldn't bring herself to mention how she felt that way too. “Commander, we'll make it work.” Normally his confidence was enough to keep her anxiety at bay. Kelile was grateful for him. But the source of Richard's confidence this time didn't reach her the same way. “But we can't continue sharing these woods with those creatures. We have to drive them out before winter. By force.”

It seemed like the only option left. “That could lead to a lot of death, Captain. On both sides.”

“We take volunteers, then. Fight in our territory. There are many who would give their lives to protect their home. Especially after their most recent attack. And those raiders?” Richard shrugged. “Food for the scarabs. I---”

A whistle stopped them, ringing out high then low before repeating the notes. Kelile returned the tune backwards, low then high, before a man in green walked out of the woods. He about Kelile's height, short and lean, and flushed with sweat. His wrinkled shirt made Kelile reach for the hatchet at her hip. His sword belt was gone too. “All clear, Derric?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sure." Derric crossed his arms in front of his waist and leaned against a tree. "But there's...something you and Captain ought to see, Commander. Near the river…” Sweat ran down his neck. The way his lips pursed made Derric appear to be annoyed. 

Richard seemed to notice how odd he looked too. “Derric, what happened? Where's Brand?”

Suddenly, Derric smirked. He pushed himself off the tree and waved them both over. “Brand is...getting himself together. He wanted to keep an eye on what we found." Derric normally saved his smiles for Brand. Or getting out of trouble. Or to distract from the truth. “Come, come. I will take you there myself.”

Kelile was caught by a memory that made her prickle. She and Richard exchanged a look but Kelile decided to swallow her assumption for the time being. Derric led them through the long pathway to accommodate for the cart (and to give what Kelile thought was more time for Brand to “get himself together”). Richard brought up the rear, whistling a tune like he did while he worked. Kelile, on the other hand, kept herself alert for any visitors. They were getting close to where the unofficial border--the river--with the creatures began. If one could even call it a border. But the trip was calm, if for Derric re-telling his version of events leading up to what they found. They hadn't even lowered the first net into the water before they discovered a body of a raider.

“Hail!” Came Brand's voice as he waved them over. “Commander! Cap!” Derric immediately went to Brand's side as Richard walked ahead of Kelile to get a good look at the body near the river, his war hammer taken off and left in the cart. Brand and Derric gave their tale to Richard while Kelile took a moment to see their surroundings. The river glistened in the afternoon sun, its current echoing across the area. The ground between her and the men was disturbed in several spots. The tree nearest her had what looked like two footprints near its base. There was a small crater looking spot that Kelile guessed was someone sitting down. There were also tracks split between leaving the way they entered and going to where Brand was standing.

Another spot several feet north had a faint trail a blood leading into the brush. Kelile followed it and found a man slumped against a tree. Dead. She wrinkled her nose before pressing her foot onto the man's torso to heave a long sword out of him. She gasped at the foul odor but made herself examine the blade's handle. Its swirling design told Kelile that this wasn't poorly made. Or crudely. The man fell onto the grass, revealing the blistered skin on his stomach from where the sword had stabbed him. Kelile stared at his body longer before retreating backwards. Her watery eyes caught a leaf falling and she looked up to find another pair of eyes staring back at her. The crouched man made a motion where it looked like he was rubbing his stomach. Kelile nodded once, got in a lungful of fresh air, and walked back to the three men. Richard was talking.

“...like they are falling apart at the seams! They were running away before we were able to start a counterattack. It had to have been from last night”

Brand tilted his head at the body below them. “They must be starving to attack their own.”

“She was a woman, Brand.” Derric pointed. “With those creatures? They probably didn't get their way anymo--” Derric quieted when Kelile walked to his side to kneel next to the second body. “Yeah well...it's true. Animals like them...they aren't sophisticated.” The commander merely touched the woman's bright red hair, wondering if such a color would have been easily seen in the dead of night. Was she one of the ones that raided their stores? It was easy to say that she had it coming to her. That they all had it coming to them. Kelile killed any raider within range of her. It was different now when the evening sun was out and matched this woman's hair. Somehow.

“She fought well enough to kill one before she fell.” The smelly sword in Kelile's hand was dropped near the woman's body. "There's a man back there who had this sword through his gut. He starting to smell too." As Richard walked away to find the male's body, Kelile looked up in enough time to see Brand and Derric exchanged a shock look with one another. Derric shrugged nonchalantly. Brand, on the other hand, rubbed his face with his hand. He groaned only for Derric to hit him with his elbow. Kelile had had enough. “What were you two doing?”

Brand began to apologize when the man in the tree jumped and landed on the ground with a low crouch. Richard commented on the male's sleath while Derric, with a muted squeak of surprise, took Brand's sword and pointed it in the male's direction. “TUDAN! You bastard! Stop doing that!” Tudan’s small black eyes only blinked once. Despite the cover over the lower half of his face, Kelile had the distinct impression that Tudan was grinning. Richard laughed hard enough to shake the nearby trees. “How long have you been hiding there?!” Derric continued yelling as Brand wrestled his sword back from the man’s grip.

"Oh relax, you two!" Richard boomed. “You must have done something if Tudan scared you so badly.”

“I was **not** scared!” Derric shouted back.

Brand got behind Derric to hold him back from Tudan. “Commander," He tried again. "We were truly going to start throwing the nets. We were only...distracted.”

Kelile turned back to Tudan. She watched him hold up his right hand and make movements with his fingers before inserting one finger into his left hand, lightly curled into a fist. The commander whipped a dirty look at Brand who suddenly found something fascinating in the river. A blush rose up his neck. Derric however allowed his smile to take over his face after holding it back for so long.

“I swear you two are worse than animals in spring! Didn’t I say this was important? We have people to feed, damn it!” The commander glared at them both. Steam flowed up from the soles of her feet. “And we can’t send just anyone out here by themselves anymore because of the damn raiders!”

“Commander!” Kelile felt it before she saw what happened. A squeeze at her ankle had her whipping out the hatchet at her hip. Brand moved faster, pressing his shield on top of the dirty arm that grabbed his commander. The body moaned and its red hair fell from around its face--the _woman's_ face--to reveal two bright green eyes. The edge of Kelile’s hatchet hovered over the its wrist. Kelile’s eyes meet the woman’s for a long moment. Her ankle was squeezed once again, like she was asking for something. Derric's mouth fell open from his position behind Brand. Richard, now at Kelile's side with his hammer, grabbed the woman's wrist and squeezed. “She’s…

“She’s alive, Kelile.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _A/N: Tudan used sign language towards the end of this scene. He signs the word for 'intercourse' to confirm that both Brand and Derric had sex instead of going fishing like they were asked._


End file.
